Frensham Village Churches

Letter from the Vicarage - August 2017

BLESSINGS FROM THE VICARAGE

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This morning when I walked up on
Frensham Common with my two chocolate Labrador puppies, as I have since we got
them last September, my breath was taken away again at the wondrous sight of
nature. Whilst walking in the winter all was quite stark, diminished and dark,
but when spring came the wondrous broom was pungent with its vanilla scent and
brilliant in its brightness of yellow and the bracken stalks started to rise
from the damp ground. As the bracken grew towards the rising sun, it
demonstrated what is called circinate
vernation (a term I learnt when I took A Level Biology) – when every stem,
frond and leaf unfurl so that the plant can get energy for growth from the sun
and become a magnificent plant. Now in the Summer the bracken is almost as high
– like the corn in the song from Oklahoma -
‘as an elephants eye’ and there is an abundance of pinkie-purple heather
all along the pathways – truly a sight to behold and one for which I am so
grateful to be able to see. All this together with the changing weather and
different panoramic skies through the seasons speak to my body, mind and soul
of the scope of that which I call God.

Some may call God the ‘energy of
creation’ or the ‘power of life’. Some may just put all this wonder down to
biology, physics and chemistry and try to explain the glory and grace of life
away. Too many others take its beauty for granted and disrespect it and
diminish it by leaving their rubbish around (which upsets me to the extent that
I am always picking up other peoples’ mess on my dog walks). Sadly these
‘disrespectors’ may never have a soul connection moment with God because they
take everything for granted – they only care for what they want to have and
want to do, and yet they have neither created nor cared for even the very
ground they stand on…

Where, I ask, is the gratefulness and
grace? How has it been lost? Some may say that life is for living and they
simply take, take, take for their own increase. This selfishness, in economic
terms, is always to the detriment of non-valued others. Those ‘others’ are
saying “why is there so much suffering in the world…?” And whilst God and
religion seem to be blamed most of the time regarding suffering, it seems to me
that there is much to be questioned about historical and now modern regressive
tribalism and corruption which use religion as a smoke screen for ulterior
hidden motives of power and control.

I believe that life and living is a
privilege. It has been given to us and we live in the grace of life. There is suffering in the world, but I believe
humanity has made it exponentially worse than the ‘organic suffering’ (for want
of a better word) that is within natural processes of life and death. God never
promised that the wholeness of life would be easy, and actually it shouldn’t be easy. Humans don’t value
things that they come by easily; Humans value those things that they have
worked for.

And so it is with God (which surely
makes sense as humans are created with the consciousness of God). Do not
believe for one Nano-second that creating Creation was an easy thing – however
you want to try to explain it. In my June blessings from the Vicarage I wrote
about the Big Bang as the bursting of God’s heart of love and value for all
creation – the very ‘emptying out’ or ‘given-ness’ of God that all life might
exist was not and still is not, something that isn’t costly (using an economic
term again). The given-ness of Jesus Christ on the cross was not ‘cheap’: the
anointed and utterly connected One of God died and rose again to reveal to
humanity the natural processes of life and death, resurrection and
reincorporation into the God of Life. God - the Eternal Continuity of Life, of
which humanity is just a part, was revealed through Jesus Christ.

When I walk out in these beautiful
places on marvellous summer days, I realise how small I am in the Eternal
Continuity of Life, but that is okay because I know God loves me alongside
everything else and has shown me that I am a valued part of creation and
connected to everything through Jesus Christ ‘s journey. I am so grateful for the grace of this
knowledge and knowing how utterly connected I am, it makes me want to love and
care for our countryside, and for all creation.